Subsidy and tax effects of controlling stream sedimentation in South Carolina

ABSTRACT:

A model consisting of a farm enterprise budget generator, a hydrologic model, and a matrix generator was used to address several questions in a specific watershed: How much subsidy would be required to induce farmers to adopt conservation tillage crop production systems? How large a tax on conventional crop production systems would be required to render those systems less profitable than systems that conserve more soil or create less stream pollution? How would adoption of conservation tillage practices offset stream sedimentation? What effects would restricting stream sedimentation from farming operations have on income? What are the potential tradeoffs between stream pollution and farm income? Results indicate that subsidies, taxes, and the imposition of sediment restrictions all could reduce stream pollution. There would be large differences, however, among these approaches in costs, stream pollution, soil loss, and farm incomes.